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Oral History Interview with Marion Wright, March 8, 1978. Interview B-0034. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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JACQUELYN HALL:

I was living in Atlanta when Paul Anthony was Director, and knew he was
involved with the Council at that time. I don't know whether it was
before his appointment or before George Esser's appointment, but people
had begun to raise the question of the need for a black Director; there
was more controversy and questioning about who should be the Director by
then, I think.

MARION WRIGHT:

Yes. That originated under Paul's regime. It was inevitable that the
question should arise. I'm familiar with another organization that went
through that same process, and that organization to which I refer now
has a black Director, and the membership on the Board, I should say,
probably would be more than fifty percent black. So as the Negroes began
to assert themselves in politics and in business, they asserted
themselves in organizations which were set up particularly for this
benefit, It was quite natural that pressure for black leadership should
have arisen. It was unfortunate that it produced some division or
dissension, and I hope that that's passed away. I attended one meeting
where tempers were high, but my tenure on the Board expired during Paul
Anthony's regime. I suspect if I had continued after I had been
present at a meeting where tempers did flare, I
would have been more exposed to a display of ill temper and that kind of
thing. But when I left, fortunately for me, I got out before that became
too bad.